"Remnant", a Christian Sci-Fi Novel

Remnant by Daniel Peyton

From the book’s description: “The year is 2522. Anna is a Remnant—a secret Christian in a world that has banned any form of religion.” Sounded intriguing so I bought the book. It was $.99 on sale.

It’s not a bad story but the simplistic writing drags it down. Christianity (in fact all religions) have been banned by the Planetary Science Commission (PSC). At no time does the author tell us why they’ve been banned. Another problem is the constant referring to people having “faith” in science and people worshiping science. How does one worship science? It’s never explained. This is the major theme of the book and it is not explained. This is a huge problem.

There are a lot of passages like this one: “Society would run better if science was in control of everything. After all, science is knowledge and what better thing to have ruling everyone but intelligence?” I don't know what that is supposed to mean. It doesn’t explain how people worship science or have faith in science. Also, there was this statement, by the PSC: “we have been bringing the glad tidings of evolution to the universe.” What is that supposed to mean?

Furthermore, it’s clear the author has no idea what evolution really is, beyond the stereotypical depiction in fundamentalist Christian publications. I immediately thought the author was probably “educated” on evolution by Chick tracts.

Anna is an astro-geologist that roams the universe investigating asteroids, moons, and planets for the purpose of discovering new elements. She is a Christian and secretly carries one of the few printed Bibles left in the galaxy. She is accompanied by a wisecracking robot, Z, who tells dad jokes, and like Pinocchio, wants to be a human. The author gallantly tries to make us like Z. This trope has been done to death elsewhere and was highly unoriginal. Anna’s goal in life it to find a husband, get married, and have children. I don’t know how she’s going to accomplish this alone with a robot in outer space for the bulk of her lifetime.

At about the 20% point in the Kindle book, I was about to stop reading, but I hung on until Anna and Z landed on the moon with lush vegetation and human-like lifeforms (the aliens had a feline component to them, complete with fangs, hirsute bodies, manes, and a tail.) The pace of the story really picks up here. Anna and Z make some discoveries that conflict with the official PSC account of the lifeforms inhabiting the moon. A conspiracy is hinted at. I kept reading partly to see what is going to happen to them and partly to see how far the author will explore Anna’s new crush. Anna starts lusting after one of the cat-like creatures, J-kla, a turn of events I found both preposterous and revolting. Example: “She enjoyed watching him from behind and seeing those well-toned muscles.” There are plenty more examples where that one came from. Eventually a needless and ludicrous romance subplot develops.

The cat creature J-kla begins to learn English. Then he discovers Anna’s Bible and learns how to read. He becomes interested in Jesus. Eventually he <spoilers> and <spoilers>.

The theology seems to be non-denominational evangelical. But also obviously anti-science, anti-evolution. Curiously the world headquarters of the Planetary Science Commission and the World Court is in Vatican City, a Vatican City that has been stripped of all reference to Christianity. Also, Jerusalem is a domed city with a sophisticated defense grid. The Jews there are described as both Messianic, Orthodox, and secular. It was confusing. It's the only place where religion is allowed. Jerusalem is a thorn in the flesh of the PSC. At a couple of points in the book I thought the author was going to go full tribulation and one of the bad guys would take the mantle of the Anti-Christ, but it didn’t happen.

The plot is interesting. The conspiracy angle is intriguing. The evil characters are interesting. The problem is the writing is sub-par. Anna, a scientist, is put off by “a gross bug crawling on a tree branch.” Politicians describe others as “stupid”. In fact, stupid is one of the author’s favorite descriptors, as in “What could that stupid Jew want to talk to the court about?” and “Jessie considered how nice it would be to drop a few nuclear bombs on that stupid city (Jerusalem). And, “The smart leading the stupid is what we are trying to execute here. Once the stupid members of the world’s population are led toward the right direction we will have what society needs.”

Despite all these flaws, I continued reading, partially out of curiosity to see what crazy thing the author would do next and partly to see how the story would end. The last fifty pages or so are packed with action, deceptions, twist and turns, revelations, and ultimately a (somewhat) satisfying resolution.

If you like Christian sci-fi, and there is so little of it, you might give this a shot. It is entertaining, it’s just not very good.